Easy Crockpot Carnitas Sopes With Cherry Coke

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FinalFourPack #CollectiveBias Coca-Cola is a corporate champion of the NCAA.

I’ll go ahead and admit it: Coke is one of my guilty pleasures! Drinking an ice cold Coke with friends while we watch the basketball games is just part of the our NCAA® March Madness tradition. My family usually gets together, that includes grandparents and sometimes even some cousins. We make it a pot luck event and everyone brings something to the party.

Of coarse food is a huge part of those get togethers and this year I will be making my famous carnitas. Carnitas are easy to make in the crockpot, you just leave them there overnight and forget about them until the next day when you open that crockpot to find the most delicious, melt in your mouth pork carnitas. A really important ingredient of the traditional carnitas recipe is Coke, I’m not kidding, look for Mexican carnitas recipe and you will find that they are made with Coca Cola. For this version I decided to give the recipe a twist and use the Cherry Coke and I have to say that the result was sublime!

5 from 2 votes

Print

Easy Crockpot Carnita Sopes With Cherry Coke

Prep Time

30mins

Cook Time

8hrs

Total Time

8hrs30mins

Author: Cesar Diaz

Ingredients

FOR THE SOPES

2cupsMaseca Masa Harina

1¼cupwater

1/4teaspoonsalt

canola oil

FOR THE CARNITAS

1pork shoulder 3-4 lbs

1teaspoongarlic powder

1Tablespooncumin

1Tablespoonsalt

1can of Cherry Coke

3oranges

2tablespoonsof panela or raw sugar

3Tablespoonsoil

Instructions

Mix the masa, salt and water together into a smooth consistency for about 3 to 5 minutes. If working in large amounts cover bowl with a damp towel to keep from drying out.Take a piece of the dough and roll into a firm ball. Use a tortilla press to flatten balls into small discs 4-5 inches wide. I didn’t have a tortilla press so I placed the masa ball in between two pieces of saran wrap and applied pressure with a cutting board.

Heat up a comal or griddle and place masa patties on griddle for about 1 minute, turn and cook for about 45 seconds.

Remove from griddle and let stand for a minute so they cool off enough for you to work with the masa, which should still be soft and malleable.

Using your fingers form the edges up like a tart shell.

Heat up enough canola oil to cover the sopes.

Place sopes in oil and fry until crispy and golden brown.

Cut the pork shoulder into roughly baseball-sized chunks.

Combine the garlic, cumin and salt and rub over the pork chunks.

Place the pork chunks in a slow cooker with the cherry coca-cola.

Add the juice of the 3 oranges along with the orange peels.

Cover, and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Remove the carnitas from the crockpot, and fry for one or two minutes r until they are browned on the outside. If you don't want to fry them you can also break the meat into smaller using a fork, spread the carnitas on a baking sheet, place on the oven and broil 5-10 or minutes until crisp on top.

Loosely shred the meat using a fork.

Fill the sopes with the carnitas,

Top with chopped avocado, crumbled queso fresco and cilantro.

Serve warm.

Sopes bring back lots of great memories and they are ideal to serve as appetizers for a crowd because they are easy to make and provide single servings but if you don’t feel like going through the extra trouble to make the sopes this carnita recipe is delicious in sliders or on a sandwich as well.

For this recipe I got the new four packs of Coke Zero, Vanilla Coke and Cherry Coke cans from Walmart. These social Coca-Cola NCAA® Final Four Packs ara available at Walmart. I had not tried the vanilla Coke before and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised with it’s great flavor but the Cherry Coke is still my favorite and that is why I used it for this recipe.

COKE is celebrating the National Coke Zero Final Four Selfie contest. You can upload a selfie with a Coca-Cola product on the site below, and be entered to win 2016 NCAA Final Four tickets. Afterwards, you can go on the site to find your selfie and see all of the others!